The delict of iniuria is among the most sophisticated products of the Roman legal tradition. The original focus of the delict was assault, although iniuria - literally a wrong or unlawful act - indicated a very wide potential scope. Yet, it quickly grew to include sexual harassment and defamation, and by the first century CE, it had been re-oriented around the concept of contumelia so as to incorporate a range of new wrongs, including insult and invasion of privacy. In truth, it now comprised all attacks on personality. It is the Roman delict of iniuria which forms the foundation of both...

Like any area of the law, the law of nuisance can be difficult to understand, because the law is the accumulation of a great many judicial decisions. Judges, of course, give explanations for their decisions, and it is always important to give due consideration to the explanations offered. But, given that judges make decisions in response to particular problems that they are required to solve - cases, in other words - it is hardly surprising that the explanations they provide frequently conflict with other explanations provided by other courts looking to solve different problems or indeed with...

The quantification of money awards for breach of contract is a topic of both significant theoretical interest and immense practical importance. In the UK, recent debates have ranged from the availability of gain-based awards to the theoretical basis for principles of remoteness and mitigation. While these and other important issues - such as the recovery of compensation for non-pecuniary loss - are touched upon in this book, the principal objective is to challenge the orthodox understanding of the expectation principle, as famously laid down by Parke B in England's historic Robinson v Harman....

Tort law is often regarded as the clearest example of common law reasoning. Yet, in the past 40 years, the English common law has been subject to European influences as a result of the introduction of the European Communities Act 1972 and the Human Rights Act 1998. EU Directives have led to changes to product liability, health and safety law, and defamation, while Francovich liability introduces a new tort imposing State liability for breach of EU law. The 1998 Act has led to developments in privacy law and forced courts to reconsider their approach to public authority liability and freedom...

In recent years, a strand of thinking has developed in private law scholarship which has come to be known as 'rights' or 'rights-based' analysis. Rights analysis seeks to develop an understanding of private law obligations that is driven, primarily or exclusively, by the recognition of the rights we have against each other, rather than by other influences on private law, such as the pursuit of community welfare goals. Notions of rights are also assuming greater importance in private law in other respects. Human rights instruments are having an increasing influence on private law doctrines....

This book is the third in a series of essay collections on defenses in private law, addressing defenses to liability arising in contract. The essays range from those adopting a predominantly black-letter approach to those that examine the law from a more theoretical or historical perspective. Some essays focus on individual defenses, while some are concerned with the links between defenses or with how defenses relate to the structure of contract law generally. One goal of the book is to determine what light can be shed on contract law doctrines by analyzing them through the lens of defenses....

This book undertakes an analysis of academic and judicial responses to the problem of evidential uncertainty in causation in negligence. It seeks to bring clarity to what has become a notoriously complex area by adopting a clear approach to the function of the doctrine of causation within a corrective justice-based account of negligence liability. It first explores basic causal models and issues of proof, including the role of statistical and epidemiological evidence, in order to isolate the problem of evidential uncertainty more precisely. Application of Richard Wright's NESS test to a range...

This book is the third in a series of essay collections on defences in private law. It addresses defences to liability arising in contract. The essays range from those adopting a predominantly black-letter approach to others that examine the law from a more theoretical or historical perspective. Some essays focus on individual defences, while some are concerned with the links between defences, or with how defences relate to the structure of contract law generally. One goal of the book is to determine what light can be shed on contract law doctrines by analysing them through the lens of...

This book provides a comprehensive theory of the rights upon which tort law is based and the liability that flows from violating those rights. Inspired by the account of private law contained in Immanuel Kant's The Metaphysics of Morals, the book shows that Kant's theory elucidates a conception of interpersonal wrongdoing that illuminates the operation of tort law. The book then utilises this conception, applying it to the various areas of tort law, in order to develop an understanding of the particular areas in question and, just as importantly, their relationship to each other. It argues...

Promises of indemnity are found in many kinds of commercial contracts, not just contracts of insurance. This book examines the nature and effect of contractual indemnities outside the insurance context. It is the first work to provide a detailed account of the subject in English law. The book presents a coherent theory of the promise of indemnity while also addressing important practical issues, such as the construction of contractual indemnities. The subject is approached from two perspectives. The foundations are laid by examining general principles applicable to indemnities in various...